One user said that he inadvertently told his friends and family to "go to hell" when he replied to the spam.

Lewis' case gained prominence on Wednesday when leading sociologist, and outspoken Facebook critic, Zeynep Tufekci tweeted a harsh takedown of the social network's behaviour.

"This is horrible. You give Facebook your phone number for login authentication; instead, it abuses it to SMS spam to drive up “engagement”, and when you reply to spam, is posts it on your wall," said Tufecki.

Thread. I can’t confirm all the details but if Facebook is using 2FA phone number for anything other than authentication, that’s the “growth and engagement team” putting vulnerable people in real danger. Inexcusable. https://t.co/qjlctf2miC

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Recent figures from eMarketer indicate that Facebook is bleeding users aged under 25 – it lost around 2.8 million younger members last year, and that slump is set to continue in 2018.

Meanwhile, roughly 700,000 Brits are expected to abandon the platform next year.

Facebook hasn't said what exactly is causing the texts to be sent out. Instead, a spokesperson for the company offered up a generic statement:

"We give people control over their notifications, including those that relate to security features like two-factor authentication. We’re looking into this situation to see if there’s more we can do to help people manage their communications."

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